Self-care now part of our everyday lives

Fadzayi Maposah-Correspondent

Part 2

YOUNG people do not understand why when older ones like me want to go shopping, we seem like we are programmed to do it at a certain time.

It seems the fuss around the need to be at the shops at a certain time is because we leave something unsaid. It appears that the older ones have a reason to be at the shops at a particular time. I am a morning shopping person.

I have migrated to doing my weekly top up of food and other items on a Sunday morning. I just want to get it done in the morning and leave the rest of the day to do other things. Then there are those who prefer to do their shopping at the end of the day, maybe on their way home after Church or work, depending on the day. Others enjoy being in the shops at the peak of the day, around lunchtime while others rush to the shopping early evening as the shops are about to close.

If you are close to my age, you remember that there was a time when shops would close their doors around five at the same time that most people would be leaving work.

There was no night shopping. Saturdays were half days for the shops, at lunchtime, they would close.

I remember how some people would be at the door begging to be let in just for an emergency or because a crisis had befallen them and they needed to get something from the shop to be part of the crisis handling. Just to make their stories believable, people would say anything had happened to them.

Their primary school teachers would have been impressed with the level of creativity, which would have earned them top marks if it had been in an essay!

Then things started changing. Working hours shifted and hours were added to the times the shops would be open. Even public holidays became operating hours and so did Sundays and Saturdays.There was a time people used to work and then rest, it seems now, the most time is devoted to working and people are not keen to rest. Maybe we do not know how to rest anymore.

I remember reading that the rocking chair was developed by Americans who felt that they should always be moving even if they were just sitting! I remember teachers punishing us in primary school for not being able to sit still. They did not like people who just kept fidgeting. Sorry our teachers, we are always on the roll now.

Business never close now. One can access products at whatever time that is convenient to them. The world is always open for business! There is online shopping. One can actually purchase their groceries in the middle of the night while people are sleeping and the same shop from which they are ordering is closed too!

At a click of button one can push a trolley in the supermarket aisles while the employees are at home. Those who used to beg the supermarket employees to let them in never dreamed such a day would come, did they? People have become ghosts. I then remember how we used to be told to go and sleep so that we would not bump into witches and wizards when they started to go on their nocturnal visits!

Now if that story is really true none of the witches and wizards are conducting any work. Honestly how can they when people are always awake.

Being in Harare late at night one will see how alive the capital city will be, with people going about activities that range from roasting mealies to gango mixing and serving. Harare has managed to spread the attribute of its name to other parts of the country.

I was on a night bus and after 11pm we were in Bulawayo on our way to Victoria Falls and there were people selling food. By food I do not mean crisps and drinks, but sadza, rice, beef stew, chicken stew and vegetables.

I do not like eating late because I have always told myself that my intestines are sleeping! Soon the bus was filled with the aroma of the stews as people opened their meals and began to feast . . .

Who remembers the impact of HIV and AIDs in the late 1990s and the early 2000s? It was really scary. Being HIV positive was like a looming death sentence. It was literary a dead man walking. Upon being told that one was HIV positive, some simply gave up on the will to live and deteriorated faster than before they had known. Take note that back then one had to wait two to three days after having an HIV test to get the results.

The anguish of waiting took its toll on the individual. By the time the result was received, one was tired, tired of waiting, tired of being anxious. When the results are shared it is a process. The results are not just handed over like an ordinary note.

There is talk and verification that the information that was shared during the pre- counselling session was well understood. The counsellor is preparing you for the result but the one being counselled sees that as unnecessary because all they want to know is their result.

Now it is possible for one to self-test for HIV.

The HIV tests can be accessed from health facilities. There are procedures though for getting a self-test kit. The health care worker does not simply dish them out like fliers for a shop opening.

The instructions are shared and clients are asked to explain what they have understood so as to clarify grey areas. The clients are also empowered on how to proceed when they have their results. What are you waiting for when you do not know your HIV status?